The Heir to the North
by AuroraFae
Summary: Barely a day after the cloaking ceremony of Tyrion and Sansa a raven brings the news of Robb and Catelyn Starks death. The imp Tyrion is now Lord of Winterfell, protector of the North, and Husband to a broken girl in need of repair. Set after the red wedding Tyrion/Sansa


How do I tell a 14 year old girl that my family had killed yet more of her family? How do I tell my wife that her father by marriage had planned the death of her most beloved mother and elder brother? She is alone in this world, she has nothing but her memories and myself; a half-man, an imp, she must think herself better off dead. She bares a good disguise, masking her true feelings and loyalties with respect to the king and disgust of her traitor bloodline. She may fool the King, she may even fool the Queen, but she never fooled me. I have been in her position my entire life, the deformed brother, the black mark on the great Lannister name, what a couple we make, the Lannister dwarf and the Stark orphan, the heir of the North. Sansa is merely a girl, she should be in the North with her family, this war should never have begun. Reaching my chamber doors on any other day would have been a relief, not today, knowing Sansa was on the other side and the news I had to give her was no relief at all.  
"Sansa…" I spoke, entering the chamber, finding her steering aimlessly out the window. Her head turned revealing bloodshot eyes and fresh tears. She knew. Joffrey had no doubt not waited a second to tell her of Robb Stark and Lady Catelyn's violent deaths.  
"Obviously you've been told" prancing around the subject was simply an insult to her intelligence, she was not a child anymore, no, we have robbed her of those years, and replaced them with the heads of five Stark's, five of her family members.  
"The King was courteous enough to tell me of my traitor brother's death, along with the deaths of my mother, my brother's wife, and the unborn child which she carried" She listed the names of her slain family members as emotionlessly as someone would list their slain sheep.  
"He shouldn't of done that, I wished to tell you in a different manner…"  
"He also told me of their manner of death" she said, still looking straight ahead, cutting me off before I could finish my sentence.  
"How my new sister was first, stabbed in her pregnant belly five times, left to bleed out, my brother was next, shot by four archers before reaching his wife, she died in his arms." She still stared into a void of nothingness, as if she had lost her grip on reality.  
"My mother was last, after watching Robb being stabbed through the heart by a man sworn to protect him. Her throat was cut. The king told me her blood was about the same colour as my hair, the Tully hair." Her voice broke as she spoke the Tully name and her head bent, now looking to her hands, tears dropping onto her fine silk dress. Joffrey, the monster who calls himself King, Sansa is now under my protection, I will not let that boy near her alone again, she is no longer his to torment.  
"Sansa, I cannot imagine the pain you must be in right now, how alone you must feel. I cannot change the past and I cannot take away your pain, but I can promise you, no one will ever harm you in any way ever again, I will always be there protecting you, my lady." It seemed almost meaningless, a promise of protection when she would gladly welcome death, but it was all the comfort I could offer that she would accept. As the words left my mouth she lifted her head, finally looking at me, acknowledging my appearance.  
"Please my Lord, I wish to be alone." Doing as she asked I soon left intent on finding Joffrey.  
In my hatred-fuelled haste I turned the corner, colliding with Shae, causing her to drop the bowl of fruit I suspect she was taking to Sansa.  
"I'm sorry my Lord" she spoke elegantly in her foreign tongue, it was a necessity for her to speak to me as a normal slave girl, even though she was so much more than that, for her protection, no one must suspect I share a relationship with this women, especially Cersei and Joffrey. However there was no one around in this corridor, she was simply mad at me, her formality was a protest against me. As she bends down slowly to pick up the now scattered fruit I quickly grab her hand and pull her into the privacy of a room.  
"Shae you cannot be mad at me for something I had no control over!" her silent and staunch cross-armed pose merely encouraged me to try harder.  
"What would you have me do? Tell my father I am in love with a hand maiden and likely watch him kill you?" This seemed to anger her, her clenched crossed arms released in a rage of fury  
"Don't you dare use my protection as an excuse, you think I don't know about danger, you think I'm scared of your father?" I had most admired her for her strength, and fearlessness, she was never scared to tell me, a Lannister, albeit a half-Lannister, but a lion still, the truth. Now it seems her most admirable quality will be her downfall.  
"No I don't and that is the problem! You should be scared, you should be terrified of the great Tywin Lannister" my voice lowered as I calmed into truth, resting myself against a chair.  
"I know I am, and each day I do not bed Sansa, my fear grows"  
"You think you can guilt me into being kind" she was as relentless as ever to continue this feud.  
"No! My lady listen to me, there is nothing for you to be jealous of, how could Sansa possibly love me?" then again, how could Shae love me?  
"I am not jealous! You still do not understand! I love that girl, I would kill for that girl, you think it is easy for me to see her unhappy by your families doing and not able to do a thing to help her?" It all seemed to become clear, as if I were in the Eyrie and fog had just lifted.  
"You are angry at me because of a shared name?" I said it almost unbelievingly.  
"Don't tell me you didn't know anything about the murders of her family" Shay was the last person I expected to hear this from. Of all the evil acts I have been forced to oversee, to witness, all of the plans to poison, skin and spike the young wolf that I've endured from Joffrey, the one alliance, the one plan which eluded my knowledge I am blamed to have known of.  
"No I didn't actually, and if I had known of this plan I would have advised against it, not only because Walder Frey is a perverted untrustworthy madman, but because I too care for Sansa, I suggest you remember that the next time you accuse me of being in league with my father" with those words I turned and reached for the door, twisting the handle to reveal an empty corridor.  
"I suggest you visit my wife the Lady Sansa, Mistress Shae, she is in need of a comforting friend."


End file.
